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GO HABS GO! Swept the lightning series Next is Boston or Detroit! This is going to be a hell of a series IMO

Train à haute vitesse Montréal-Boston: Tout le monde à bord? http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/200911/13/01-921553-train-a-haute-vitesse-montreal-boston-tout-le-monde-a-bord.php Yves Schaëffner (Boston) Le projet de train à haute vitesse entre Montréal et Boston est bel et bien sur les rails, si l'on en croit le gouverneur du Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, et le premier ministre Jean Charest. Les deux hommes, qui ont eu un entretien d'une demi-heure vendredi midi, ont dit vouloir tabler sur l'intérêt de l'administration Obama pour le transport ferroviaire afin de faire avancer le projet. «Il y a beaucoup d'intérêt, a assuré le gouverneur américain. Nous avons des échanges commerciaux très importants, nous avons des liens sociaux très forts et, durant certaines périodes de l'année, c'est intéressant d'aller et de venir entre les deux places pour les matchs de hockey», a plaisanté le gouverneur. Entouré de ses deux chiens dans son bureau, il a poursuivi en expliquant qu'un lien Montréal-Boston pourrait s'inscrire dans le cadre du projet de train régional à haute vitesse sur lequel planche plusieurs États du nord-est des États-Unis. Montréal pourrait un jour devenir le dernier arrêt sur cette ligne. Les gouverneurs de la Nouvelle-Angleterre qui ont soumis différents tracés espèrent recevoir l'appui de l'administration Obama pour développer leur projet. Si le projet d'un train à haute vitesse reliant Boston à Montréal fait l'objet de spéculations depuis des années, Jean Charest pense que le projet est davantage sur les rails aujourd'hui qu'il ne l'était par le passé. «D'abord, ce qu'il faut noter, c'est que les États de la Nouvelle-Angleterre se sont mis ensembles pour présenter des tracés conjoints. Cela ne s'était jamais fait auparavant, a-t-il précisé après sa rencontre. Le contexte est évidemment unique parce que le gouvernement fédéral (américain) a annoncé sa volonté d'investir massivement dans le transport ferroviaire, ce qui n'était pas le cas jusqu'à l'élection du gouvernement Obama.» Abondant dans le même sens, le gouverneur du Massachusett a renchéri: «Nous sommes plus avancés dans le sens qu'il y a des sommes qui sont mises de côté dans le plan de relance économique. Il y a des crédits budgétaires tangibles.» Alors, à quand la première pelletée de terre? «Vous devez demander ça au gouvernement fédéral (américain), a répondu M. Patrick. Je lui pose également la question. Espérons que cela soit bientôt.» À travers son plan de relance économique, l'administration Obama compte investir 8 milliards de dollars US pour moderniser le système ferroviaire du pays. Mais, évidemment, la compétition est rude entre les différents États pour obtenir ne serait-ce qu'une portion de cette somme. En juillet, le gouvernement fédéral avait déjà reçu des demandes totalisant plus de 100 milliards dans le cadre de ce programme, selon le Boston Globe. Ça me semble bien intéressant comme projet...mais disons que je ne suis pas convaincu que nous allons voir un nouveua lien à haute vitesse entre MTL et BOS d,ici 2015!!!

By Eric Moskowitz | GLOBE STAFF MAY 19, 2013 The city’s on-street bike lanes are marvels to US visitors. We had pedaled half a block from the vibrant Jeanne-Mance Park, past tennis matches, a youth league football game, and the filming of a music video, when it dawned on me: We were biking in one direction, and the cars were pointed in another. But this was no rogue move by our tour guide, leading us the wrong way down a one-way street. Pavement markings invited it. Stopping ahead, guide Martin Coutu pointed out a defining feature of the city’s residential neighborhoods: the cast-iron outdoor staircases leading to the upper floors of thousands of two- and three-story walkups, allowing the homes to achieve a gracious sidewalk setback without ceding interior space for shared entries and stairwells. Still, I couldn’t help marveling over that bike lane, beckoning two-way cycling down an otherwise one-way street. I could picture just a single block like it in Cambridge and none in Boston. But as we followed Coutu along Fitz & Follwell Co.’s ’Hoods and Hidden Gems tour, it became clear that, in Montreal, it was one of many. Coursing through the city, we followed all manner of on-street bike lanes — plain old painted lanes, two-way lanes, lanes protected from traffic by plastic rods or concrete curbs — and off-street bike paths. We even saw some bicycle-specific traffic lights. Painted markings guided us through intersections, and signs told drivers to give us the right of way. More remarkably, they obeyed. Related If you go biking in Montreal... On that four-hour tour, and again riding around the city on the bike-sharing network known as Bixi, no one honked at us, not even once. It was liberating, allowing us to follow Coutu — a cheerful character with the whippet build of a bike messenger, unafraid to give a playful squeeze to the bulbous retro horn affixed to his handlebars — without any white-knuckled worry about staying alive. “The majority of our customers are American,” Shea Mayer, Fitz & Follwell’s founder, told me later, “and they all say, ‘It’s unbelievable. I live in Boston, I live in New York’ — or California, or wherever it is — ‘and not only can I not believe the amount of lanes you have, but I can’t believe we haven’t been run off the road yet.’ ” And there was plenty to see following those bike lanes, on a tour inspired by Mayer’s idea of a perfect day off in Montreal, often ranked as the most bike-friendly city in North America. Riding a stylish set of Dutch-inspired upright bikes, we weaved through the colorful neighborhoods that fan out to the east and northeast of the verdant peak known as Mont Royal, including Mile-End, Outremont, and Petite Italie. We stopped to sample wood-fired, sesame seed-covered bagels on Rue Saint-Viateur; sip exquisitely prepared cappuccino at Café Olimpico; and explore the open-air stalls of the Jean-Talon Market, the larger, locally minded cousin to the tourist-choked Atwater Market on the waterfront. Mayer started Fitz & Follwell as a one-man outfit in 2009, soon growing it into an eight-guide business and a boutique in the hip neighborhood known as The Plateau, where he rents and sells bikes and offers locally made, bike-friendly products such as a leather crossbar holster for wine bottles. The outings now include a food tour by foot and winter toboggan and snowshoe expeditions in the city’s famed parks, but the bread and butter is still the April through October bike tour. It is designed not as a stop-and-go sightseeing tour that happens to be by bicycle, but a two-wheeled immersion in, and celebration of, a place with a deeply ingrained bike culture. Having written about Boston’s push under Mayor Thomas M. Menino to end its status as the scourge of the biking world, starting from zero to add 60 miles of bike lanes, and launching the Hubway bike-share network, I was aware of the basic facts about Montreal. It boasts hundreds of miles of bike lanes, and its Bixi system, with more than 400 stations and 5,100 bikes, is four times as extensive as Hubway. But the numbers tell only part of it. This is a rare city beyond Europe where bicycling is not just a form of daring recreation or reluctant transportation but an essential, accepted part of everyday life. It is the way urbanites get to the pub, the park, the office, the grocery store. I saw bikes as fashion statements and bikes outnumbering cars, three or four fastened to every parking-meter post on the bar-, cafe-, and boutique-laden Saint-Laurent and Saint-Denis avenues. Not that I had come to Montreal intent on geeking out on the bike infrastructure and scene. My girlfriend, Hannah, and I had been drawn by the city’s traditional allures: food, culture, architectural charm, and proximity to Boston. Before we went, Hannah made a Facebook appeal for suggestions, and a friend in New York quickly responded, declaring Fitz & Follwell “the best thing I’ve ever done as a tourist” — anywhere. A Google search yielded similar superlatives on TripAdvisor, where the company holds the top ranking among all manner of Montreal tour providers, so we booked. What distinguishes Fitz & Follwell was never clearer than at the end of the tour, after we had admired more outdoor staircases and followed Coutu through a world tourists rarely see: the intricate network of back alleys that were once the unremarkable setting for so many anonymous coal deliveries and trash collections, but that have been enlivened recently with lush gardens, ivy-draped terraces, and candy-colored murals. Winding down, we ducked into a boulangerie and pedaled behind Coutu to Parc La Fontaine, where he laid a blanket on a rare stretch of unoccupied grass and we sat down to a spread of ripe strawberries and cherry tomatoes from Jean-Talon Market, made-to-order sandwiches from the boulangerie, and ice-cold craft beers. As we sipped, ate, and laughed, another group biked into view on the far side of the lawn, gathering around a leader. Not only were they not enjoying a picnic, but they were clad in matching fluorescent vests, like members of a prison road crew. “That’s the other bike tour,” Coutu said, grinning impishly. “They’re people who get lost easily.” Watching them, it was easy to forget we weren’t locals ourselves — or, at least, visitors being shown around by a savvy friend. When we got back to the shop, we lingered, reluctant to let go of the leather grips on those Dutch-inspired bikes. So we did the next best thing, renting Bixis to explore places suggested by Coutu as we had buzzed by — only so many eating stops can be squeezed into one tour. Undaunted by intermittent rain, we rode in the evening along part of the Canal-de-Lachine, a 35-year-old bike path that traces a canal abandoned after the 1959 opening of a shipping channel in the mighty St. Lawrence River, and followed another bike path along part of the city’s active industrial port and over the low-slung Pont de la Concorde bridge, reaching Île Sainte-Hélène, the leafy epicenter of Expo ’67, still anchored by the Biosphere and an amusement park. Darkness settling in, we followed a path to the other side of the island and found a trail leading to the Jacques Cartier Bridge, an 11,000-foot steel truss span that rises 162 feet above the St. Lawrence, similar in size and design to Boston’s Tobin Bridge. However crazy the idea of biking the Tobin might sound, here we found an inviting bike lane — and an exhilarating one, high above the jet-black water — running along one side of the Cartier, protected from traffic. Pedaling back to downtown, I thought about something Coutu had said: Montreal wasn’t always so bike-friendly, it just had an earlier start. I considered Boston, where bicycle counts are rising, and new lanes, albeit unprotected ones, are striped every year. As the city lights came closer, I realized I wasn’t just pedaling toward the most bikeable city on the continent. I was seeing a vision of Boston’s future. http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2013/05/18/bike-tour-montreal/Q7r2F3g6TIuwiiITu0ypGL/story.html

Une poignée d'investisseurs français et québécois en capital-risque s'est donné rendez-vous en début de semaine au Venture Capital Forum. L'événement organisé à Montréal par la Chambre de commerce française au Canada a permis à une douzaine d'entrepreneurs de se faire voir des firmes de capital-risque locales, mais aussi étrangères. Aurélien Chouvet, chef de la direction d'Insidoo, ne voulait pas rater l'occasion de faire connaître son entreprise à des investisseurs nord-américains. «On veut prendre le pouls local», a-t-il indiqué en entrevue avec La Presse Affaires. L'entreprise de commerce électronique qu'il a cofondée se positionne comme un intermédiaire dans la vente en ligne de mobilier, en plus de fournir l'accès web à un logiciel de planification d'intérieur. Maintenant qu'il est bien implanté en France, Aurélien Chouvet souhaite reproduire son modèle d'affaires en Amérique du Nord. Et, selon lui, le Québec pourrait être un terreau fertile pour accueillir sa version nord-américaine. «Lorsqu'on réfléchit à un tremplin de lancement sur l'Amérique du Nord, le Québec est sûrement une possibilité intéressante», a-t-il précisé. Des représentants de firmes de capital-risque ont aussi fait le voyage Paris-Montréal pour participer à l'événement. Didier Moret, directeur général du fonds français I-source, en a profité pour tisser de nouveaux liens d'affaires. «Ça nous permet d'être informés sur ce qu'il peut y avoir comme entreprise intéressante ailleurs que chez nous. C'est aussi une occasion de rencontrer des investisseurs qu'on peut ensuite inviter à se joindre à nos entreprises», a-t-il dit. I-source gère un fonds de 243 millions investit dans 24 entreprises, dont au moins une québécoise, LeddarTech, qui commercialise des outils de détection pour le secteur du transport. Grâce en partie à cet investissement d'un fonds français, l'entreprise de Québec est en train de faire sa place sur le marché européen. «Quand une entreprise se développe bien, c'est bien qu'elle soit financée par des fonds d'autres pays, parce que ça lui ouvre des portes pour se développer à l'international», indique Didier Moret. Le Venture Capital Forum se voulait d'ailleurs une occasion pour les investisseurs et entrepreneurs participants de faire le saut à Boston le temps d'une journée pour y rencontrer les acteurs de l'endroit. Selon Serge Auray, PDG de Laboratoire M, c'était une occasion en or qui s'offrait à son entreprise. «Trouver un investisseur qui connait bien mon secteur et qui a de l'expertise dans les réseaux de distribution, ce serait le Klondike pour moi», disait-il quelques heures avant son départ pour Boston. Son entreprise, située à Sherbrooke, a développé une série de nettoyants «verts» pour les secteurs industriel et résidentiel. Elle lancera un premier produit aux États-Unis d'ici quelques jours, et prépare aussi une entrée éventuelle en sol européen. http://lapresseaffaires.cyberpresse.ca/economie/quebec/201203/23/01-4508524-capital-de-risque-rapprochement-entre-le-quebec-et-la-france.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=lapresseaffaires_LA5_nouvelles_98718_accueil_POS1

http://lapresseaffaires.cyberpresse.ca/economie/services-financiers/201202/15/01-4496134-state-street-concentre-des-activites-a-montreal.php

J'ai trouvé cet article sur Cyberpresse.ca Ça vaut la peine! http://www.cyberpresse.ca/opinions/201101/05/01-4357438-le-quebec-doit-accentuer-ses-echanges-avec-la-nouvelle-angleterre.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=cyberpresse_B9_place-publique_1242600_accueil_POS4 Pierre Harvey L'auteur est président de Harvey International inc., à Sherbrooke. Le Québec doit accentuer ses échanges avec la Nouvelle-Angleterre Le développement économique du Québec est en train de reprendre vie tranquillement. Malheureusement, certains secteurs souffrent toujours de l'après-crise, notamment l'industrie du bois, le secteur manufacturier de l'usinage des métaux (fabrication mécanique et mécano soudée) et le tourisme. Le 16 septembre 2009, le ministère des Relations internationales du Québec écrivait dans un communiqué de presse: «En 2007, la valeur totale des échanges de biens entre le Québec et (la Nouvelle-Angleterre) s'est élevée à 11,45 milliards de dollars. Le Québec y a exporté pour 7,7 milliards de biens, représentant 11,1% des exportations totales de marchandises du Québec et 14,8% de ses exportations vers les États-Unis.» Dans cet esprit, il serait souhaitable que le Québec se dote d'une vraie politique de développement économique intégrée englobant la Nouvelle-Angleterre comme principale priorité en matière de déploiement des efforts marketing et des relations politiques et économiques du Québec. En ce sens, l'État québécois devrait accentuer sa présence dans cette région et prioriser une politique de développement accélérée des relations commerciales et politiques avec cette région de plus de 15 millions de personnes. Le Québec vend plus en Nouvelle-Angleterre (14,1%) que dans tous les pays européens réunis (9,7%). Le tourisme provenant de la Nouvelle-Angleterre représente aussi une importante part de notre industrie touristique. Doit-on rappeler que plus de 30% des touristes qui viennent au Québec proviennent de la Nouvelle-Angleterre et que 90% d'entre eux utilisent les infrastructures routières? Ce marché est donc trop important pour le Québec pour qu'il ne soit considéré simplement que comme une région de développement parmi tant d'autres. L'effort collectif nécessaire pour peaufiner l'image de l'hydroélectricité du Québec dans cette région est prioritaire tout comme la multiplication des efforts des villes québécoises pour créer des réseaux forts avec les acteurs économiques de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. Il serait aussi souhaitable qu'une priorité d'actions soir entreprise aussi avec les acteurs franco-américains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre qui comptent encore aujourd'hui plus de 1,6 million de personnes. Cet effort, orchestré par le Québec, soutenu par Ottawa et déployé par les acteurs économiques locaux, pourrait grandement servir les intérêts des entrepreneurs québécois tout en favorisant aussi les entrepreneurs de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. Même si la crise économique des derniers mois a fait baisser quelque peu les chiffres mentionnés ci-haut, il n'en demeure pas moins que l'importance économique et touristique primordiale de cette région mériterait que l'État québécois révise complètement le mandat de la délégation du Québec à Boston. En effet, la délégation du Québec à Boston devrait être autant, sinon plus imposante que celle de New York, car elle est seule capable de consacrer la relation de proximité qui existe entre le Québec et la Nouvelle-Angleterre. La délégation du Québec à Boston devrait aussi pouvoir supporter politiquement le travail d'une nouvelle corporation privée de type OSBL strictement orientée sur des intérêts économiques privés, qui serait composée d'entreprises et de représentants d'Hydro-Québec, entre autres, qui aurait pour mandat de prendre en charge l'ensemble des efforts économiques du Québec plutôt que de dépendre des simples gestes de quelques fonctionnaires du ministère des Relations internationales. Dans les faits, c'est bien simple: le délégué général du Québec à Boston doit être l'ouvreur politique de porte et les privés font le reste pour sceller la relation commerciale. Dans cet esprit, une corporation privée de type OSBL pourrait être chargée des mandats suivants en y incluant des pouvoirs décisionnels dévolus à ce bureau: promotion économique et touristique du Québec en Nouvelle-Angleterre; centralisation des efforts de développement des relations commerciales, focus group, missions d'affaires et activités de «match-making»; relations et partenariats institutionnels avec collèges, universités, instituts de recherches, associations professionnelles; relations culturelles et sociales (Association canado-américaine, clubs Rotary, Richelieu, etc.); coordination des efforts de toutes les régions du Québec vers ce marché. New York, Pennsylvanie et New Jersey Dans le même esprit de rapprochement accéléré avec la Nouvelle-Angleterre, il va de soi que la stratégie globale englobe aussi ces trois États limitrophes et qui composent le grand nord-est des États-Unis. D'ailleurs et en fonction des moyens limités dont nous disposons au Québec, le type d'approche proposée avec la Nouvelle-Angleterre devient une priorité qui va forcément déteindre vers ces trois États tous aussi importants pour le Québec. Avec plus de 42 millions d'habitants, cette région, appelée le Tri-State, est l'extension naturelle pour le Québec dans son axe de développement nord-sud. Au final donc, le Québec se positionnerait comme leader incontesté du nord-est de l'Amérique du Nord, car c'est par le Québec, de par notre historique de relations avec la Nouvelle-Angleterre que tout cela devrait s'orchestrer. Imaginons seulement le retour sur investissement si nous pouvions contrôler efficacement le transport des marchandises, des personnes et surtout contrôler les besoins énergétiques de plus de 60 millions de personnes. Comme stratégie de commerce de proximité, il n'y aura jamais rien de plus pertinent ni de plus rentable que de profiter d'une manne à moins de quelques heures de route.

Voici un article du magazine Voyages d'Affaires, Paris, octobre/novembre 2010 qui place Montréal au premier rang en Amérique du Nord pour les congres internationaux en damant le pion à New York, Boston, Washington, Vancouver et Toronto. http://www.voyages-d-affaires.com/meetings-et-incentive/meetings-et-congres/canada-montreal-premiere-destination-d-amerique-du-nord

Mauer, Twins open Target Field, top Red Sox 5-2 By: DAVE CAMPBELL, Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have finally moved into their own place. They held the housewarming party outdoors. After 28 seasons inside the dingy Metrodome, the Twins broke in Target Field by beating the Boston Red Sox 5-2 Monday behind hometown star Joe Mauer in the first regular-season game at their new ballpark. The Minnesota Twins have finally moved into their own place. They held the housewarming party outdoors. After 28 seasons inside the dingy Metrodome, the Twins broke in Target Field by beating the Boston Red Sox 5-2 Monday behind hometown star Joe Mauer in the first regular-season game at their new ballpark. Jason Kubel hit the first home run — "I'll remember for the rest of my life," he said — and Carl Pavano earned the first victory. "I've been waiting a long time," said Mauer, who grew up less than 10 miles away in St. Paul. "It's definitely a special place, and I'm glad it's here." Red-white-and-blue bunting hung from the ledges and commissioner Bud Selig was in attendance for the celebration, which started hourse before the crowd of 39,715 snapped cell-phone pictures of the first pitch by Pavano. The unpredictable spring weather played right along, too, with a blue, breezy 65-degree afternoon. "It was colder in spring training than here today," said center fielder Denard Span, a Florida native who acknowledged concern about the early-season conditions here. "All around, a perfect day for everybody." On the Twins side, at least. Pavano (2-0) gave up four hits and one run in six innings and the Twins bullpen backed him up, with Jon Rauch recording his fifth save in as many attempts. Jon Lester (0-1) struggled for the second straight start and labored through five innings for the Red Sox, throwing only 59 of his 107 pitches for strikes while giving up four runs on nine hits and three walks. He struck out five. "I just stunk," Lester said. "Didn't make pitches, and I really don't know what else to say." Kubel hit his home run into the right-field seats in the seventh inning to finish with three hits and two RBIs. Mauer did the same. "It's only fitting, a Minnesota boy playing in his home ballpark," Span said. "You can't write a better script than that. He's probably going to be doing that about 80 more times here. You guys might want to go ahead and get used to that." Twins baseball started in suburbia in 1961 at Metropolitan Stadium and moved downtown to the Metrodome in 1982, the year before Mauer was born, sharing both facilities with the Vikings football team. Now, in their 50th season, they've merged fresh air with city energy in this cozy ballpark of their own with rail tracks, parking ramps and bike racks, warehouses and skyscrapers, and bars and restaurants all around. "It's beautiful," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who frequently compared the Metrodome to an office building. The Twins wore 1961 throwback jerseys and brought back Harmon Killebrew, Kent Hrbek and dozens of former players who graced the Met and the Dome to tribute their history. The weather was ideal. At least on this day, the fans wouldn't have minded even a monsoon. "We're from Minnesota. We've got plenty of rain gear. We fish. We hunt," said Tony Carlson, who struck poses next to the Puckett statue on the plaza outside before the game with his friend, Bryan Spratt. Marco Scutaro, batting leadoff for Boston in place of Jacoby Ellsbury, who sat out with sore ribs, got the ballpark's first official hit, a single to center. He was picked off by Pavano. The Red Sox were, unusually, a sideshow and not the main attraction. The Twins got their offense going right away, with Michael Cuddyer driving in Span for the first run and Kubel coming next with his own RBI single. Even Mauer was more of a background character, with the $545 million, limestone-encased ballpark the star of the day. Not to be totally outdone, though, AL MVP hit an RBI double down the left-field line in the second. Mauer hit a grounder up the middle that skipped off second base for an RBI single in the fourth when Scutaro couldn't handle it. Sputtering designated hitter David Ortiz, who went 2 for 18 with nine strikeouts during the season's first week, helped his confidence with an RBI double that left fielder Delmon Young nearly caught over his shoulder — but dropped in an awkward collision with the wall in the fourth inning to give the Red Sox their first run. "I thought I hit it better than that," Ortiz said, hoping for a homer. Mike Cameron hit a long drive to center with two out and one on in the seventh, too, that was caught by Span with the Twins leading 4-1. So far, it doesn't look like the ballpark will be a bandbox. "That's all I got," Cameron said. "I don't know what else to say." NOTES: This is the fifth time the Red Sox have been the visiting team for the first official game at a new ballpark, though the first since 1923. Boston also helped open Oriole Park (Baltimore, 1901), Shibe Park (Philadelphia, 1909), Griffith Stadium (Washington, 1911) and Yankee Stadium (New York, 1923). The Red Sox lost all five. ... Selig said Target Field is a high-priority site for a future All-Star game, possibly as early as 2014. ... Pavano stopped a line drive in the sixth by Victor Martinez with his hand, grabbing the ball, getting the second out and slapping his thigh in reaction to the pain. Pavano finished the inning and said afterward he was all right. "I was glad to get the out and get out of there," he said. Photo :: http://www.flickr.com/groups/targetfield/pool/

Le New York Times va-t-il fermer le Boston Globe ? Publié le 04 mai 2009 à 12h36 | Mis à jour à 12h43 Agence France-Presse Le groupe de presse américain New York Times (NYT) va notifier aux autorités fédérales son plan de fermer le quotidien Boston Globe, devant le refus des syndicats du journal d'accepter un plan d'économies, selon le Washington Post de lundi. Le New York Times a menacé de fermer le quotidien historique de la ville de Boston, qui risque de perdre 85 millions de dollars cette année, si les syndicats du Boston Globe n'acceptent pas des baisses de salaires et autres mesures d'économies d'un total de 20 millions de dollars. Le dépôt officiel de ce préavis légal de 60 jours avant fermeture renforce la possibilité que le Globe disparaisse dans les semaines à venir. En 1993, le groupe New York Times avait racheté le Boston Globe, créé il y a 137 ans, pour 1,1 milliard de dollars. Mais il pourrait s'agir d'une tactique pour forcer les syndicats à accepter des concessions, puisque cette notification n'oblige pas le New York Times à mettre à exécution son projet de fermeture au bout des 60 jours, fait valoir le Washington Post. Le Boston Globe rapporte lundi que les négociations ont été interrompues, après que le plus important syndicat du quotidien, le Boston Newspaper Guild, qui représente quelque 600 travailleurs, et la direction du groupe de presse ont échoué dans leurs négociations marathon. La direction du New York Times a rejeté la dernière proposition du syndicat, qui proposait une réduction de coûts de quelque 10 millions de dollars, indique le quotidien. Selon le Boston Newspaper Guild, cette proposition comportait notamment des réductions salariales de 3,5% pour la plupart des employés, des congés sans solde, une augmentation de l'âge requis pour pouvoir bénéficier d'une retraite anticipée et une diminution des contributions aux retraites. «Ils ont rejeté notre proposition», a affirmé le président du syndicat, Daniel Totten au Globe. «Il s'agit des mêmes tactiques d'intimidation et de pression», a-t-il ajouté, précisant que les négociateurs étaient épuisés et allaient effectuer une pause. «Les négociations sont terminées pour aujourd'hui (...) nous allons nous réunir à nouveau sous peu», a-t-il indiqué. D'autres syndicats, plus petits, ont conclu au cours de la nuit passée un accord provisoire avec la direction, précise par ailleurs le quotidien de Boston.

Un article, qui, je le sent, fera plaisir à Malek Should Downtown Crossing be reopened to traffic? Would car traffic bring back the crowds? Boston Globe, by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | March 1, 2009 Downtown Crossing's problems have been well-documented: Crime has spawned fear, heightened by a stabbing and shooting in the midst of a bustling afternoon. Shops that once thrived next to Jordan Marsh and Filene's have shuttered, leaving empty storefronts cheek-by-jowl with pushcarts, discount jewelry stalls, and gaping construction sites. Sidewalks that teem with rowdy teenagers and office workers by day lie empty and forbidding at night. For years, city planners have been promising to restore the area to its former grandeur and make it a major urban destination. But as they have attempted solution after solution without success, they have never tried one idea: reopening the streets to traffic. Indeed, Downtown Crossing remains one of the last vestiges of a largely discredited idea, the Ameri can pedestrian mall, which municipal planners once believed would help cities compete with proliferating suburban malls. In the 1970s, at least 220 cities closed downtown thoroughfares, paved them with bricks or cobbles and waited for them to take hold as urban destinations. Since then, all but about two dozen have reopened the malls to traffic, as planners, developers, and municipal officials came to believe that the lack of cars had an effect opposite of what they had intended, driving away shoppers, stifling businesses, and making streets at night seem barren and forlorn. "Pedestrian malls never delivered the type of foot traffic and vitality they had expected," said Doug Loescher, director of The Main Street Center at The National Trust for Historic Preservation. "The sense of movement that a combination of transit modes provides - whether on foot or in car - really does make a difference," he said. "People feel safer, because there's some kind of movement through the district, other than a lone pedestrian at night. It just creates a sense of energy that makes people feel more comfortable and makes the district more appealing." Boston planners are against opening up Downtown Crossing, but as the district suffers the exodus of anchor businesses and a deepening malaise has settled in, some shop owners long for the energy, ease, and excitement they remember before Downtown Crossing closed to most traffic in 1978. "There was a constant flow of cars, stopping and going; it was very active, very busy, like a typical city street," said Steve Centamore, co-owner since 1965 of Bromfield Camera Co., on Bromfield Street, part of which is open only to commercial traffic. "There were people coming and going. It didn't seem to impede any pedestrians. It was a lot busier. People could just pull up and get what they needed. Now, it takes an act of Congress to even get through here." Pellegrino Bondanza, 72, who has sold vegetables in Downtown Crossing since he was a boy, said the pedestrian mall "didn't work out well." He hopes the city will reopen it to traffic. "Maybe it would bring some of the action back in town," he said. "I remember as a kid, I tried to squeeze in with a pushcart and, if I could locate at a corner, I could sell what I had in an hour and make a good living there. You had to be a little careful crossing the streets and everything, but don't forget the cars went slow when they were going up them streets there. There was no fast driving." Boston officials say they considered reopening Downtown Crossing to traffic and, in 2006, hired a team of consultants from London, Toronto, Berkeley, Calif., and Boston to study the idea. The consultants concluded that the mall should stay because the estimated 230,000 people who walk through Downtown Crossing every day should be enough to keep the place lively and economically vital. "What we heard from them pretty loudly was, 'Not just yet. Make it work. Give it your best effort,' " said Andrew Grace, senior planner and urban designer at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. "Lots of cities throughout the world make these districts work. The historic centers in most European cities function, and they thrive." Kristen Keefe, retail sector manager of the BRA, warned that bringing back traffic could squeeze out pedestrians who, she said, already contend with crowded sidewalks. "We just think these two things are in conflict," she said. Boston built its pedestrian mall after a study showed that six times more pedestrians than cars traveled down Washington Street - in front of what was then Filene's and Jordan Marsh - "so the impetus was to reassert the balance for pedestrians a little bit and improve the safety and amenities for pedestrians," said Jane Howard, who helped design the mall for the BRA and is now a planner in a private firm. It was a time when malls were being built across the country. Some are still considered successful - in Burlington, Vt., and Charlottesville, Va., for example. And New York City is experimenting with blocking traffic on Broadway through Times and Herald squares to create pedestrian-only zones. But those are the exceptions. Chicago, which turned downtown State Street into a pedestrian mall in 1979, reopened it to traffic in 1996, convinced that the mall had worsened the area's economic slump and left the street deserted and dangerous. Eugene, Ore., scrapped its mall in 1997, frustrated that "people went around downtown instead of through it," said Mayor Kitty Piercy. Tampa got rid of its mall in 2001 because it "didn't bring back any retail," as the city had hoped, said Christine M. Burdick president of Tampa Downtown Partnership. Buffalo, which has trolley service on its mall on Main Street, is currently reintroducing cars after finding that shoppers avoided stores that were cut off from traffic. "It takes a leap of faith to go somewhere nearby, pay to park, and then walk to someplace you haven't been yet," said Deborah Chernoff, Buffalo's planning director. "All the cities are dealing with the reality of how people actually behave." Downtown Crossing is not even a full pedestrian mall. Because Washington Street, its main thoroughfare, is open to commercial traffic, pedestrians mostly stick to the sidewalks, avoiding the cabs and police cruisers that often ply the route. After dark on a recent weeknight, just after 8:30 p.m., Downtown Crossing resembled a film noir scene, its deserted rain-slick streets glistening with the reflections of neon signs from a shuttered liquor store and a discount jewelry shop. The few pedestrians who hurried by were mostly teenagers and office workers descending into the subway or headed to the bustle on Tremont Street. They walked purposefully, scurrying past darkened store after darkened store with metal gates pulled shut. The only cars were a police cruiser that rumbled past, an idling garbage truck, and the occassional taxi. Yet some say the mall should stay. The developer Ronald M. Druker, who owns buildings on Washington Street, said he has "vivid memories of the conflict between cars and pedestrians," before the mall was built. "If you insinuated cars and trucks on a normal basis into that area, it would not enliven it," he said. "It would create the same problems that it created 30 years ago when we got rid of them." But others, particularly the shop owners struggling to survive the recession say they are eager to try just about anything that would bring back business. "Downtown Crossing definitely needs something - that's for sure," said Harry Gigian owner since 1970 of Harry Gigian Co. jewelers on Washington Street, which has seen a sharp dropoff in sales. "Nobody comes downtown anymore." De mon côté, j'adore les rues piétonnières européennes. Par contre, dans la plupart des cas, plusieurs des éléments qui font leur succès là bas ne sont pas réunis de ce côté ci de l'Altantique: - Bien qu'animées à certains moments de la journée ou de l'année, nos rues principales sont plutôt tranquilles la majorité du temps (les matins, les journées froides d'hiver, etc) - la présence d'itinérants, plus nombreux ici - il n'y a pas de "point focal", de destinations, ou point d'attraction majeure à chaque bout de nos rues qui ont le potentiel de devenir piétonnières. Par contre, il est très agréable de se promener dans la foule, l'été, sur une rue sans traffic automobile. Un compromis: avoir des rues piétonnières temporaires? par exemple, fermer Ste-Catherine les vendredis, samedis et dimanches de l'été, de midi à minuit? Bon, on ouvre les lignes! Les amateurs d'urbanisme, bonjour!

Entrevue avec le président de la société française Train haute vitesse : Alstom rêve de relier Montréal à Boston 19 mars 2009 - 17h11 Katia Germain ARGENT Le président d'Alstom Canada et Alstom USA, Pierre Gauthier, a un rêve qu'il chérit avec d'autres : un train à haute vitesse reliant Montréal à Boston, New York et Washington. «Dans un document du National Geographic, la liaison Montreal-Boston apparaît! Je me dis, ce n'est pas impossible de la concrétiser si on en a la volonté... Nous sommes les leaders à ce chapitre. Je rêve peut-être, mais ça nous ferait un grand plaisir de participer à ce projet!», a-t-il souligné. Le président d'Alstom prononçait, jeudi, une allocution devant le Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal. L'Agence ferroviaire fédérale américaine étudie présentement la possibilité de faire circuler un train à haute vitesse dans le corridor Montréal-Boston. Selon Transports Québec, les résultats seront divulgués au printemps 2010. Des projets en vue à Montréal En parallèle, Alstom se montre intéressée par plusieurs projets actuellement caressés par Montréal. «Montréal a un plan de développement et de modernisation de son réseau de transport en commun ambitieux. Alstom pourrait contribuer à de nombreux chantiers qui pourraient être lancés par la métropole», a lancé M. Gauthier. La construction d'un futur réseau de tramway, une navette ferroviaire entre le centre-ville et l'aéroport Montréal-Trudeau ainsi qu'un train rapide Montréal-Windsor comptent parmi les projets qui suscitent l'intérêt de la société française.

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- New York’s biggest banks and securities firms may relinquish 8 million square feet of office space this year, deepening the worst commercial property slump in more than a decade as they abandon a record amount of property. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and industry rivals have vacated 4.6 million feet, a figure that may climb by another 4 million as businesses leave or sublet space they no longer need, according CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the largest commercial property broker. Banks, brokers and insurers have fired more than 177,000 employees in the Americas as the recession and credit crisis battered balance sheets. Financial services firms occupy about a quarter of Manhattan’s 362 million square feet of office space and account for almost 40 percent now available for sublease, CB Richard Ellis data show. “Entire segments of the industry are gone,” said Marisa Di Natale, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “We’re talking about the end of 2012 before things actually start to turn up again for the New York office market.” The amount of available space may reach 15.6 percent by the end of the year, the most since 1996, according to Los Angeles- based CB Richard Ellis. Vacancies are already the highest since 2004 and rents are down 5 percent, the biggest drop in at least two decades. In 2003, the city had 14.8 million square feet available for sublease. If financial firms give up as much as CB Richard Ellis expects, that record will be broken. ‘Wild Card’ CB Richard Ellis’s figures don’t include any space Bank of America may relinquish at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan, where Merrill Lynch & Co., the securities firm it acquired last month, occupies 2.8 million square feet. Brookfield Properties Inc., the second-biggest owner of U.S. office buildings by square footage, owns the Financial Center. Merrill “is a wild card right now,” said Robert Stella, principal at Boston-based real estate brokerage CresaPartners. Manhattan’s availability rate -- vacancies plus occupied space that is on the market -- was 12.3 percent at the end of January, up more than 50 percent compared with a year earlier and almost 9 percent from December, according to CB Richard Ellis. Commercial real estate prices dropped almost 15 percent last year, more than U.S. house prices, Moody’s Investors Service said in a Feb. 19 report. The decline returned values to 2005 levels, according to the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indexes. SL Green The Bloomberg Office REIT Index fell 25 percent since the start of January, with SL Green Realty, the biggest owner of Manhattan skyscrapers, slumping 50 percent. Vornado Realty Trust, whose buildings include One and Two Penn Plaza in Midtown, has fallen 36 percent. SL Green of New York gets 41 percent of its revenue from financial firms, including 13 percent from Citigroup, according to its Web site. Bank of America plans to give up 530,000 square feet at 9 West 57th St. as it completes a move to 1 Bryant Park. New York- based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is leaving 1.3 million square feet of offices at 1 New York Plaza and 77 Water St. as it prepares to move to new headquarters near the World Trade Center site. JPMorgan put 320,000 square feet of Park Avenue offices on the market after scooping up rival Bear Stearns Cos. last year along with the company’s 45-story headquarters tower at 383 Madison Ave. Citigroup has put 11 floors, or 326,000 square feet, on the market at the 59-story Citigroup Center at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street, bank spokesman Jon Diat said in an e-mail. The tower is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties Inc. Moving Out “We’ve been having conversations for two and a half years with Citigroup, and it’s been very clear to us that for the right economic transaction, they would move out of virtually any space in midtown Manhattan that they have,” Boston Properties President Douglas Linde said on a conference call last month. Boston Properties is also expecting to receive about 490,000 square feet back from Lehman Brothers at 399 Park Ave. as part of the bank’s liquidation. That space “will be a monumental challenge” to fill, said Michael Knott, senior analyst at Newport Beach, California-based Green Street Advisors. “They’re going to have to really bend over backwards on rate, or make the strategic decision to sit on it for an extended period of time.” Zuckerman said in an interview he doesn’t expect the increase in sublets to be a long-term problem for landlords. “You’re not going to be able to get for the space what you were able to get a year ago,” he said. “But in a year or two, in my judgment, the space will be absorbed.” Future Forecast Landlords must be prepared for a slow recovery, said Di Natale of Moody’s Economy.com. Commercial vacancy rates climbed for almost a year and a half after the last recession ended in late 2001. Still, CB Richard Ellis Tri-State Chairman Robert Alexander said New York’s financial community will regenerate. “In the late ‘80s, we lost Drexel Burnham Lambert and we lost Salomon Brothers, and we lost Thomson McKinnon,” Alexander said. “New York City survived.”

So we lose another head office. Medtronic buying CryoCath 9/25/2008 9:25:48 AM Comments (0) Post-Bulletin and news service reports Medtronic Inc. is paying about $400 million to buy a Canadian medical device company that has worked with Mayo Clinic. This morning, Minneapolis-based medical device maker Medtronic announced that it is buying Montreal-based CryoCath Technologies Inc. CryoCath has accepted the offer of $8.75 per share, about $380 million total. CyroCath makes a heart catheter used to treat atrial fibulation. Mayo Clinic participated in a clinical study, along with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, of CryoCath's Arctic Front catheter. Dr. Douglas Packer of Mayo Clinic presented the results of the study at the Annual International Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium in 2006. In today's announcement, Medtronic explained why it is interested in CyroCath. "Medtronic estimates that up to five million patients worldwide are impacted by atrial fibrillation," said Pat Mackin of Medtronic. "Medtronic and physicians are interested in procedures that are safer, faster and less complex so that more patients can benefit from treatment."

La Bourse de Montréal devient majoritaire dans la BOX 29 août 2008 - 16h41 LaPresseAffaires.com La Bourse de Montréal a conclu une acquisition lui procurant une participation majoritaire de 53,2% dans la Boston Options Exchange Group (BOX). La société du Groupe TMX a également acquis une participation de 21,9% d’un autre associé principal de BOX, la Boston Stock Exchange. Pour les officiels de la Bourse de Montréal, cette acquisition témoigne du désir de l’institution d’obtenir une part de marché plus importante aux Etats-Unis. «Hausser notre investissement dans BOX témoigne de notre confiance envers notre stratégie visant à accroître notre présence sur le marché américain des options sur actions», a indiqué Luc Bertrand, chef adjoint de la direction du Groupe TMX et PDG de la Bourse de Montréal. Pour la Bourse de Montréal, il s’agit d’une association naturelle. La BOX est un marché de produits dérivés entièrement électronique tout comme la bourse montréalaise. La Boston Options Exchange a été créé en février 2002.

La bourse montréalaise a acquis une participation de 53 % dans la Boston Options Exchange. Un mariage naturel pour ces deux bourses de produits dérivés. Pour en lire plus...

Montreal Bagels and Smoked Meat in Boston Posted on May 30, 2008 21:37 by Bruce Bilmes & Sue Boyle Categories: Editorial | From The Web | News | Publications Always wanted to try the famed smoked meat of Montreal? The Boston Globe writes that the Walnut Market, in the Boston suburb of Newton, sells fresh and frozen smoked meat direct from Lester's Delicatessen in Montreal. Eight pounds will currently run you $80. That's not all. The famed bagels of St-Viateur (see Michael Stern's photo above) are also sold at the Walnut Market, a buck a piece. Michael Stern, in his Roadfood.com review, says about the bagels that "we came back for more and soon we were addicted, toting four dozen back to the U.S. with us and hoarding them." Well, if you live in the vicinity of Boston, hoard no more! http://www.roadfooddigest.com/post/2008/05/Montreal-Bagels-and-Smoked-Meat-in-Boston.aspx

Mark Pacinda: How do you say ‘Boston Pizza' in French? BERTRAND MAROTTE Globe and Mail Update November 16, 2007 at 6:19 PM EST When Boston Pizza International Inc. decided it wanted to crack the Quebec market four years ago, the B.C.-based chain's executive team was warned by industry veterans that they shouldn't even bother. Outsiders have had a notoriously tough time winning over Quebec consumers, and the eatery business is particularly difficult, given the sometimes puzzling culinary preferences of the francophone majority, they were told. No doubt about it, La Belle Province presents its own challenges as an island of predominantly French language and culture in North America. THE LANDSCAPE Companies keen on making a foray into Quebec with their product or service need to be alert to the differences and respect the predominance of the French language. To cite one recent case of what can happen when you fail to heed Québécois sensibilities: Coffee chain Second Cup sparked public protests and complaints last month when it dropped from some of its signs the two French words – “Les cafés” – that appeared before its English name. BOSTON PIZZA'S ENTRÉE Boston Pizza president Mark Pacinda decided his company was ready to expand into Quebec, but not before it built a credible base in the province. The results so far indicate that the bet on Quebec is a winner. After just 21/2 years, Boston Pizza will have 24 restaurants in the province by the end of the year and is on track to have 50 by 2010. The chain boasts more than 280 Canadian locations and sales last year of $647-million. “We really took our time going in,” Mr. Pacinda says. “The first thing is that we wanted a Quebec team on the ground.” A separate regional head office for Quebec was opened in the Montreal suburb of Laval 18 months before the first outlet was opened, in 2004. Quebec City native Wayne Shanahan was hired to spearhead the Quebec strategy. GOING QUÉBÉCOIS Once the button on a Quebec launch was pressed, no detail was overlooked. For example, research was conducted into whether a French version of the brand name was warranted. “There's obviously no translation for Boston or for Pizza and we decided the name as it is would work,” Mr. Pacinda said. A key discovery was that Quebeckers want to have the option of a multicourse lunch, not just the more packaged “combo plate” offering. “They want a ‘table d'hôte,' in other words an entrée, a salad and desert,” he said. Also, because wine has more of presence in the province than in the rest of the country, Boston Pizza's wine list in Quebec was expanded from the standard eight choices to 25 labels, Mr. Shanahan says. The fine-tuning was even extended to the pizza pie: In Quebec, the cheese goes on as a final layer, not underneath the toppings. The Boston Pizza version was dubbed “La Québécoise Boston.” And two Quebec standards – poutine and sugar pie – were included on the menu. LE FRANÇAIS, TOUJOURS LE FRANÇAIS Making sure that all business is conducted in French was also important, Mr. Shanahan said. Many companies that move into Quebec, and even some local anglophone firms, don't bother to ensure that legal and business paperwork, and even day-to-day communications, are in French, he said. “What you want to do is essentially be a francophone company.” In another first for Boston Pizza, a local advertising agency was hired. A separate ad campaign was created, including billboards that displayed a Quebec vanity licence plate with the words “Boston, QC” on it. LESSONS LEARNED Boston Pizza's carefully plotted wooing of the Quebec market is a strategy increasingly practised by retailers eager to make inroads in the province or consolidate their position. Wal-Mart Canada Corp., for example, went on the offensive in the wake of the outcry over its decision two years ago to shut its Jonquière store after it became the first outlet in North America to be unionized. Wal-Mart insisted the closing was because the store wasn't meeting its financial targets. The retail behemoth nonetheless was portrayed as a cold corporate outsider that cared not a whit about Quebec society. A “Buy Quebec” campaign was launched last year, aimed at sourcing more homegrown products and groceries while playing to the province's regional tastes and local pride. Outfits like Boston Pizza and Wal-Mart will obviously never be known as true Québécois companies. But as Normand Turgeon, a marketing professor at the business school HEC-Montréal, wryly notes: “If you're going to be a bottle blond, you're better off choosing the right shade.”

La Bourse de Montréal veut contrôler la Boston Options Exchange 2 octobre 2007 - 09h20 LaPresseAffaires.com Grossir caractèreImprimerEnvoyer La Bourse de Montréal Inc. (MXX) a entrepris des négociations visant à devenir l’actionnaire majoritaire de la Boston Options Exchange (BOX). La BOX est une bourse américaine d'options sur actions dont la Bourse de Montréal gère les opérations techniques. L’institution montréalaise souhaite ainsi disposer de 53,2% des actions, contre 31,4% jusqu’à présent. L’opération reste soumise à l’autorisation de l’autorité financière américaine, la Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). La Bourse de Montréal souhaite acquérir les 21,9% d’actions que détient la Boston Stock Exchange (BSE). La Bourse de Montréal avait signé une entente en août 2006 avec la BSE pour augmenter sa participation dans la BOX à 44,7 %. La réglementation du marché de la BOX ne sera pas interrompue, précise la compagnie montréalaise. La Bourse de Montréal est un associé fondateur et un opérateur technique de BOX depuis 2002. «BOX est reconnue comme l'une des bourses d'options sur actions les plus évoluées du point de vue technique sur le marché américain», indique la Bourse de Montréal.